Red Tags

Every once in a while, it's a good idea to spend about 20 minutes looking around the shop pretending that you are an OSHA safety compliance officer.  For effect, make up a stack of "red cards" and place them on equipment, power tools, saws without guards, trip hazards, improper eye protection gear, dirty dust masks, improperly stored flammables and banana peels.

If nothing else, just make sure you know where the nearest fire extinguisher is.

Also. extension cords can be dangerous.......this one has experience a total melt down. Unfortunately, it was still operational and it gave no indication of it's impending doom. 

Increased chord length

I realized the I had used the wrong profile template when shaping the rudders, so I needed to increase the chord length to improve the efficiency of the rudders ( I accidentally used the profile template that was intended for the dagger board rudders which was slightly rounded towards the lower ends).  A mix of micro balloons and epoxy molded to the trailing edge did the trick.  The good thing about keeping a nice messy shop is that you can always find stuff laying around to use to affect simple modifications......no need to stop work to go to the hardware store.  Seen here, I made a quick mold out of some vac tubing sheet rock screwed to a Formica covered picnic table from the pop up camper. 

The next step on the rudders will be to laminate the heck out of these things.  I plan on running Kevlar along the leading edge with multiple layers of triaxial glass and unidirectional glass running lengthwise over that to create what will essentially turn out to be cedar core composite rudders.

kick up rudder boxes / boarding steps

The kick up rudder boxes are a fair amount of work but in the end, I think it will be worth the peace of mind that I'll have knowing that the rudders will be a little less vulnerable to hitting an obstruction and at the same time allowing the full rudder to be immersed below the water line. 

Since the lower portion of the rudder boxes are completely sealed off, it required me to pre bond flanges to the inner sides that will allow me to bond the side in place.  Inside the box in the lower left corner of this picture, you can see the glass reinforced bearing holder that has been bonded in place.  Above this, located in the upper bulkhead you can see the backing plate made of 1/4 in. aluminum plate. This plate will be tapped with threads so that the upper bearing can be held in place from above by four screws. Once complete, the rudder shaft will be inserted from below and held in place with a collar and thrust bearing.